NASCAR Playoff Field Finally Set as Ryan Blaney Wins Daytona Finale

Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL — August 23, 2025

It all comes down to this: 400 miles at the “World Center of Racing” to determine the final playoff positions for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 will determine if a 2025 new winner joins the 16 drivers in this year’s postseason. A repeat winner will lock in Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman based on points. The Summer Daytona winner got his first win of the season in five of the last seven years. In 2024, the last two races of the regular season were won by drivers who needed to win to make the Playoffs.

Tyler Reddick holds a 29-point advantage over Alex Bowman as they battle to NOT be 16th in the Playoff Standings; the most points Reddick lost to Bowman in a race this season was 28 points, at Richmond in the series’ last race.

They say Daytona is one of the wild card races on the schedule because anyone can win it. The list of potential winners includes Cup Champions, veterans, rookies, and long shots. At the end of 160 laps, barring extra laps in overtime, we will know who will be crowned a Daytona Champion.

Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Chris Buescher, Ryan Preece, Kyle Busch, Ty Gibbs, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Michael McDowell, Erik Jones, John Hunter Nemechek, Zane Smith, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Daniel Suarez, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland, Ty Dillon, Noah Gragson, Cole Custer, Riley Herbst, or Cody Ware are all eligible to qualify for the playoff with a win tonight

Just to add a little more drama to the pre-race festivities, Army paratroopers rappelled down from Black Hawk Helicopters to deliver the green flag that will start the race.

Stages are set for 35/60/65 laps around the 2.5-mile asphalt tri-oval. The event marks the 157th running of a NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway, the most among all tracks in Cup history. Qualifying was rained out, Ryan Blaney sits on the pole per calculations based on the NASCAR rule book. Alex Bowman starts beside Blaney on the front row.

Since the start of 2023, Team Penske led 1,123 of 3,392 laps raced on drafting tracks (33%), more than three times the laps led by any other team. Hendrick Motorsports leads all teams with seven wins on drafting tracks in the Nex Gen era. Team Penske is the only team with three different drivers to win a drafting track race in the Next Gen era.

Stage One

Ryan Blaney(12), with his teammate Joey Logano(22) pushing him, led a single file train of five cars out in front of the pack with everyone else running three-wide behind them.

William Byron(24) was forced to pit on the first lap as a penalty for unauthorized changes to his car after inspection. Seven laps into the race he was passed by the leaders. If he stays in position as the first driver a lap down he can return to the lead lap as the “lucky dog” during the first caution period.

Casey Mears(66) created that condition when he lost a right rear tire and spun near the back of the pack on lap 12. Mears suffered not damage to the car and was able to come to pit road, get new tires and return to racing only losing one lap.

The race restarted on lap 16 with a similar result. Blaney, Logano, and Brad Keselowski jumped from the top lane. Only this time, Daniel Suarez(99) was able to pull the inside lane back in touch with the leaders.

The caution came out again on lap 18 when Tyler Reddick(45) and Todd Gilliland(34) got together off turn four and spun down to the entrance of pit road. Racing midpack they were fortunate to not collect any other cars in the incident. The spin occurred directly in front of Alex Bowman who had a front row seat to the action. Reddick’s car punched the inside wall with the nose of his car suffering significant damage.

Several teams took the opportunity to pit during the caution for a full tank of Sunoco Racing Fuel and four new Goodyear tires. Reddick’s crew performed repairs to his car and kept the #45 on the lead lap. How the damage will affect his car in the battle with Bowman remains to be seen.

When the race restarted on lap 24 Blaney lined up next to Bubba Wallace(23) and it was Bubba edging out front and then climbing up the track ahead of Blaney. Suarez followed suit by leading the inside line to the front and taking over from Wallace.

On lap 28, Blaney passed Wallace and Bubba got collected by a four-wide pack of cars triggering “the big one” early. Joey Logano who was directly behind Wallace got pinched by two cars, but somehow avoided serious contact as he squeezed through as Wallace spun to the bottom of the track. Kyle Busch(8) clipped Wallace and sent him back up the track where multiple cars became involved. NASCAR was forced to display the red flag, parking the cars on the tri-oval as track crews cleaned up the mess.

The cars of Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.(47), Noah Gragson(4), Kyle Busch(8), Riley Herbst(35), and Austin Cindric(2) were towed behind the wall. Alex Bowman’s car suffered extensive damage and ended up in the garage. Essentially locking him into the 16th playoff position and putting him in danger of elimination should a driver winless in 2025 take the checkered flag. It also assures Tyler Reddick a position in the postseason.

Stage points now become immaterial in the race. However, a Stage win will provide a playoff point to the drivers taking the green and white checkered flags.

Restarting with two laps to go in the Stage, McDowell and Blaney led the pack to green. Blaney edged out front and was first back to the line with one lap to go. Blaney pulled down to the bottom lane to block McDowell and that allowed Kyle Larson(5) to pull up next to him out of turn four. With a push from Ross Chastain(1), Larson edged Blaney for the Stage win.

Stage One Results

*Ford Mustang Dark Horse Drivers.

Stage Two

Cody Ware(51) and Brad Keselowski(6) led the pack back to green. Ware jumped ahead of Keselowski who pulled in line behind the leader. John Hunter Nemechek(42) pulled up next to Ware on the outside as Daniel Suarez headed up a third line trying to come to the front up the middle of the track.

The middle lane fell apart as cars jumped into the top lane forming a seven car single file break away. Erik Jones(43), featuring the old Richard Petty colors on the iconic #43 headed up the lower lane. The outside line continued to grow as cars left the bottom line to pull up to the faster lane sending the side-by-side action to the rear of the field.

That did not last long as Ty Dillon(10) formed a second line and cars joined immediately to push him to the front. Justin Haley(7) and McDowell pushed Ty Dillon to the lead. It did not take long to form a third line and the battle for positions was on.

The lead changes came fast. Chastain, McDowell, Logano, Chase Briscoe(19), Cole Custer(41), and even Shane van Gisbergen(88) (SVG) took at turn at the front.

With 13 laps to go in Stage Two, Carson Hocevar(77) engine let go and he came to stop on the backstretch bringing out the caution again. This will give cars low on fuel an opportunity to fill up without losing the draft and set up a wild dash to the end of the Stage.

Restarting with eight laps to go, William Byron, Chase Elliott(9), Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, and Ty Dillon lead the field to green. Logano shuffled his way to the lead on the bottom line. McDowell tried to form a third on the top ad got shuffled way back in the pack. Briscoe moved back to the front with four laps to go.

Larson tried to go forward and got stranded, Briscoe got caught in the middle and dropped back. Chastain and Logano raced to the green and white checkered with Chastin winning the Stage by a nose.

Stage Two Results

*Ford Mustang Dark Horse Drivers

The Final Stage

Different pit strategies jumbled the front of the field. Nemechek, Christopher Bell(20), Erik Jones, and Chris Buescher(17) lead the field to the green for the the Final Stage. Among the top four, only Bell has a in this year. Buescher pushes Bell and Jones pushes his teammate Nemechek. The #42 and #43 move out front of the pack, just as Hamlin hits the wall, bringing out the caution flag.

Denny Hamlin(11) comes to pit road with the right side of the car destroyed and the right front tire torn off the wheel. Pit road was closed while Hamlin limped his car in for attention. When the pits opened for service almost the entire field came to pit road as the laps had clicked down to fall into the window for a full tank of fuel to carry drivers to the 160 lap mark.

Several cars came to pit road for fuel when the one to go signal was displayed. Extra insurance in case the race goes into overtime.

Logano and Dillon sit on row one, Jones and Larson in row two, Chris Buescher and Justin Haley in row three. The green flags resumes racing with 45 laps to go. Dillon jumps to the front of the pack. The two drivers swap the lead at various points around the track.

Once Logano got out front he managed the lead well moving between lines to mute momentum. Chris Buescher worked his way in behind Logano and the two Ford Mustang Dark Horses paired to take advantage of timely pushes. Erik Jones pushed Briscoe up to run even with Logano but the two Fords work together to maintain the advantage.

Jones pushed Briscoe to the front briefly until Logano, with a push from Haley, regained the lead. Jones moved to second when Briscoe got pushed high and dropped back. Jones and Logano swapped lanes and Haley pushed Jones to the lead. With Logano and Buescher lined up again on the bottom lane they are not as dominant as they were running at the top of the track.

With 14 laps to go Jones and Logano are swapping the lead back and forth all around the track. Clearly Logano has the faster car.

Coming off turn four with 12 laps to go, Logano got loose and spun in front Buescher. The two made light contact and Logano slid into the tri-oval grass bringing out the caution. He lost a lap getting to pit road for four new tires.

Jones now leads Haley, Larson and Preece as the laps tick down under 10 laps to go.

Haley opts to take the bottom lane pulling up next to Jones for the restart with eight laps to go. Larson was all over the rear bumper of Jones and pushes him high on the track dropping the 43 to the rear of the pack. Haley and Preece now share the front row side-by-side.

With two laps to go Larson shifted high and Preece got dumped into the center lane dropping the #60 car out of contention. Cole Custer moves to the lead, Haley drives around and takes the top spot on the final lap. Ryan Blaney followed Custer to the front, coming from 13th with two laps to go to take the lead as they run four-wide to the checkered flag. Blaney takes the checkered flag and Alex Bowman can’t say enough thanks as the #48 car makes the playoff despite heading to the garage early in the race.

The top 23 cars all finished within 1-second of each other.

NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Standings

*Ford Mustang Dark Horse Drivers

The Playoffs open next Sunday evening with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Results of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona International Speedway